A Speedster's Plight
by janus-juan
Summary: Wally didn't expect to survive his encounter at the North Pole and he really didn't expect to wind up in an alternate universe where creatures of Darkness and Nothingness roamed around creating havoc, where a key-shaped weapon is the only thing that can defeat them, and where a talking duck, dog, mouse, and humans worked together to establish world orders. He just wants to go home.


**Just something I thought I'd upload to commemorate Wally's birthday today on 11/11 (or yesterday depending when this chapter is actually posted on FF). Or should I say our birthday because, drumroll please! **

***drum roll* **

**Me and Wally share the same birthdate. All down to the year. **

**So today we are 19 years old! And what better way to celebrate it than by giving you all something I've been working on for a while now. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own YJ or KH. If I did, YJ wouldn't have been cancelled, Wally would still be in Earth-16's plane of existence and Kairi would have actual character development (let's hope for KH3 we get us some). **

**Chapter 1: Station of Awakening**

Falling. That's the sensation Wally felt ever since that scene in the Arctic Circle. He remembers being hit by the energy backlash of the chrysalis device repeatedly before his body started to become intangible. And when he thought all was lost, he had turned to his uncle, the man who he had idolized since he was little, his last goodbye before a bright light had overtaken him. Now Wally found himself on what appeared to be a stained glass platform.

_Where am I? _The platform appeared to be surrounded by a never-ending expanse of darkness. Looking over the edge of the platform, Wally couldn't help but gasp when he noticed that he couldn't even see the bottom of the giant platform he was standing on.

_Better be careful. _The former sidekick took a couple of steps away from the edge to distance himself from any possible danger; he _had_ just survived a near death experience, thank you very much.

As he was stepping back, he noticed something about the stain glass platform. His eyes widened in shock at what he saw before his shocked expression transformed into a smile.

The platform was prominently red and yellow with some white here and there and featured a sleeping Wally in his Kid Flash costume. The flash insignia was repeatedly shown in small circles that went all the way around the edge of the platform. An inner circle held the smiling faces of his friends and mentor right beside his face: Roy, Dick, M'Gann, Conner, Kaldur, Uncle Barry, and, of course, Artemis.

Wally couldn't help but smile at the sight of the closest people to him. He didn't know if he'd ever be able to return to them, but just being able to see their smiling faces one more time made him feel happy inside.

As he stared at the image of his friends, a small shadow began to creep towards him. It kept getting closer and closer before it was only a few feet away from the redhead's body. Just then, the shadow began to rise until a small creature stood in its place, the thing's body twitching and aching to launch itself at the youth.

And it would've, had the noise of its twitching not alerted the superhero to the impending danger. Using his speed, Wally was able to sidestep the creature's lunge.

"What the hell is that thing?" Wally asked aloud, getting himself into a fighting stance.

The creature apparently saw this as a threat and suddenly it dropped into the ground, becoming a dark puddle in the platform's image once again. Wally was definitely not expecting that. And he was definitely not expecting what happened next. More and more shadows began to appear upon the surface of the glass until much of it was covered in darkness.

His eyes widened when more and more of the creature rose up from the dark spots until he was facing down at least eight of them, all of them creating a semi-circle in front of him. And boy were they weird looking.

The creatures had weird bug-shaped heads and were pitch black in composition. The only thing that was different from the rest of their bodies was their bright, golden eyes that stared at Wally with raw curiosity and hunger.

Not moving his eyes off the bug-like creatures, Wally slowly backed himself away, acting like he would when cornered by dangerous animals. Wally wasn't sure why but looking into those eyes made him feel really uneasy; which is a big accomplishment when looking at what he had dealt with in his short life.

Things seemed to be going fluidly until Wally noticed that he was right at the edge of platform. And that's what the creature was waiting for.

The moment Wally stopped walking back, the creature in front of him suddenly lunged itself at Wally, sharp claws aiming towards Wally's chest. And it may have actually hit, if Wally hadn't been trained by the Fastest Man Alive.

Fast reflexes let him sidestep the attack before Wally grabbed ahold of the creature's stubby legs and the next it knew it was flying to the other side of the platform.

Based on its size, Wally thought that it would at least cause it some damage, but it didn't seem fazed. It didn't even seem winded as it attacked again. But Wally didn't have time to think as yet another attacked him from his right, pushing him towards the middle and putting him on the defensive.

Hand to hand combat had no effect on these creatures and he was just putting himself in danger whenever he got too close; the only reason he hadn't been struck by those sharp claws was because of his speed. He didn't know how effective the attacks really were but he wasn't about to find out.

_Perhaps I should try another tactic._ The red-haired youth thought.

Changing directions, Wally went to the edge of the stain glass window and with a sigh began to run around at superspeed. He ran faster and faster and, as he did, a large wind started to pick up. The wind he generated began to increase in disposition until the creatures started to rise into the air. Seeing this Wally pushed himself harder until the wind became a whirlwind and the dark bugs were violently thrown around, hitting each other at random intervals as they flew higher and higher.

Wally could feel himself getting weaker all of a sudden; he had already drained a large portion of his energy reserves during the North Pole incident. Luckily, one by one the weird black creatures started to disappear in a flurry of black smoke. Once the last one was gone, Wally slowed down and skidded to a stop.

Wally bent over in exhaustion, hands on his knees as a way of keeping himself from falling down onto the ground. It was getting harder and harder for him to use his powers lately.

_I shouldn't have pushed myself so much, especially after my near death back in the Arctic. _Wally thought as he tried to get his breath back. Suddenly Wally felt his stomach growl loudly, signaling that he was hungry. When was the last time he ate? The last thing he remembered eating was the plate of pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs that Artemis had made for them (he had had like 3 platefuls of food while Artemis only had one).

Just thinking about that delicious breakfast made his stomach growl with even more vigor.

_At least those weird bug things are gone._ Wally grinned at the thought.

But he thought too soon as suddenly the stain glass platform below him started to rumble and shake.

Looking over the edge of the platform, Wally barely had time to react as a creature of tremendous speed jumped above his head. The force of his speed trail somehow caused Wally to lose his balance and fall on his butt. Looking up he noticed that the creature was pure black like the bugs but was taller and more muscular and looked even more dangerous. And to make it worse, a squad of these new creatures as well as the bugs were behind it.

Taking the lead, the monster attacked.

Wally put his right arm in front of his face as a futile way of shielding himself and closed his eyes in resignation.

_I guess this is it._

He awaited the sharpness of the creatures' claws, but they never came.

A bright light surrounded the area and incinerated the dark beings. The origin of the attack appeared to be coming from the former sidekick, or, to be more exact, by the sudden appearance of the weapon that now lay within his outstretched hand.

The weapon was a weird mix of a sword and, for some odd reason, a key. The weapon's handle was bright red and shaped exactly like the logo that Conner wore on his black shirts and that Wally remembers Superman told him about once—the red shield is a symbol of the House of EL, which Conner and Clark were a part of. The weapon's shaft was tubular, silver, and was covered in Kaldur and M'Gann's logos they wore in their superhero clothing. The teeth of the sword/key was colored green like the grass and was in the shape of a miniature crossbow, the ends of connected to the shaft by two strings. Perched at the very top of the blade was a majestic blue bird object, its wings open wide as if it was ready to fly away at any moment. Finally at the very bottom of the weapon was a small chain that extended from the bottom of the handle. Moving his eyes downward Wally saw what appeared to be a keychain that had the Flash family lightning bolt on top of a white circle and a yellow background. **(1)**

For some reason Wally could hear the word _Keyblade_ being repeated over and over in his head. Based on his weapon's design Wally believed that was the name of strange design. Wondering what to name it, another name began pushing through into his thoughts and suddenly two words clicked in his head: _Alacritous Ardor. _

"The…Alacritous Ardor…key…blade?" Wally questioned as he inspected his lifesaver. Twirling it around in the air Wally noticed how light the blade felt, which would make it easy for him to use it while running around at superspeed.

_Almost like it was designed just for me._

He didn't have time to admire the weapon a bit more because the dark creatures were upon him again, though now it seemed that they were staring at what Wally held in his hands rather than at Wally himself.

Grinning, Wally got into a fighting stance. "Time to exterminate these bugs." He launched himself at the forward and engaged in battle with the closest creature, which happened to be at his left. The blade sliced right through the smaller creature, causing it to disappear into black smoke, and then Wally rolled to the side before slicing upward on one of the more dangerous beings.

Another one down.

It was like second nature—which is weird because he's never even used a sword before in his life, especially not a weird key-sword hybrid. Sure, he was a quick learner, but this was ridiculous.

_Must be the adrenaline._ He thought and went back to fighting the creatures. Within a matter of seconds the last of the weird bugs were gone, nothing but wisps of darkness signifying they had been there at all.

"Piece of cake." Wally muttered to himself, though his haggard breathing signaled that he was about to drop any minute now.

_Wonder what's next._ Wally thought as he looked around wildly. He was sure he was ready for anything after what he'd just witnessed…

But he definitely wasn't expecting for his shadow to suddenly rise up from behind him. He definitely did not expect his 3-dimensional shadow to morph into a giant version of his previous enemies with weird tentacle hair things or for it to raise his huge fist against him. It was only years of practice being the Flash's sidekick that allowed him to dodge the oncoming attack.

"What the hell just happened?!" Wally yelled in exasperation. Another punch was the creature's response. Apparently it didn't seem like the creature understood what he was saying.

"Not too bright, are ya? This should be easy, then." Wally smirked and tightened his grip on his weirdly shaped weapon.

Steeling his resolve Wally dashed into the fray. Using his speed he was able to outmaneuver the creature's punches and when it punched directly into a vortex of dark energy, Wally jumped into the air and used the force of gravity to slice down along the dark being's forearm. Small wisps of darkness escaped from the protrusion, making Wally smile in victory. It might take a little longer than it did to take out the other creatures but at least Wally knew for sure that it could be hurt.

Turning his attention away from the arm, Wally ran towards the creature's lower body.

Attacking the legs appeared to be a fruitless effort because no matter how many times he hit the creature's legs, there was no reaction.

_So the creature is weak along his arms but appears to be resistant to attacks to the legs. Interesting…_ Wally thought as his investigative instincts took over. It paid to be a scientific genius and best friend of one Dark Squire of Detectiveness (copyright pending).

Seeking other weak spots Wally ruled out the abdomen and back. _But what about the head?_ And Wally was off. And just in time, too, because the creature was launching another one of its dark punches.

Wally waited until the hand hit the ground before Jumping upon the large hand, Wally used his speed to move along the arm and towards his enemy's head. He settled himself on the creature's shoulder and raised his weapon above his head.

_Hope this works._ Wally thought as he brought the blade down.

The sharpness of the blade created a large gash down the creature's head, wisps of darkness escaping from the wound in the same way a human would bleed when struck.

The monster lurched backward in pain and tried to dislodge the hero from his body. But Wally was too quick and before the creature could grab him, he had already delivered six more slashes, each one deeper than the last.

"You're through!" He yelled as he delivered the final cut upon the monster.

Things happened in slow motion after that, which is saying something when one of the combatants is a speedster. Wally maneuvered himself so that he crouched into a roll when he landed and looked behind him to see his handy work.

The creature seemed to be having a mini seizure as it convulsed and twisted itself around, golden eyes seeking his prey out while its body started to expel darkness. Dark tendrils moved forward so quickly that Wally wasn't able to evade them fast enough and he was suddenly pushed down onto the glass ground. The tendrils wrapped around his arms and legs so tight that Wally couldn't hold the cry of pain in. But as Wally opened his mouth the clouds of darkness began to enter his mouth's crevice and started to fill his body with dark energy.

It felt like something was trying to claw itself inside of his body, sharp pain hitting his chest area as well as his mouth as the darkness forced him to widen his jaw to the point where it felt like it was going to break in two. His appendages began to slacken and he lost the grip on his Keyblade completely.

The stain glass platform was being engulfed completely by the dark scourge and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Wally tried to fight with all the power he could muster but the darkness was too powerful and he was so tired.

One last thought ran through Wally's head as he succumbed to the darkness.

_Artemis._

**(1) If you wanted a visual of it check my page here on FF and then click on the Alacritous Ardor link (tumblr one). **

**Well, there you have it. Sorry that I haven't been able to update my other stories but I've been really busy with college. I'm updating my computer files whenever I get the chance so I haven't given up on my other projects. Yes, even Reconnect. Really sorry about that one. I have the idea and know what's going to come along but the fight scenes are taking so long. **

**I hoped you guys liked this. I really do. I'm sorry ahead of time for any grammatical or spelling mistakes and also for if you guys think this is crap. This is my first time writing a crossover so I hope it's okay ^^**


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